Chelsea v Roma: Christensen In, Luiz pushed into midfield and Michy Batshuayi given another chance?

Chelsea face Roma on Wednesday night in match-day three of our Champions League group knowing that a win would put us in the perfect position to qualify for the next round.

Heading into the game, having suffered three Premier League defeats in eight games so far this season, Chelsea need to build on two excellent performances in the Champions League with a much better performance against Roma compared to those against Manchester City and now Crystal Palace. 

The Champions League is a welcome distraction for Antonio Conte and his players but we are faced with injuries to key players ahead of this one.  N'Golo Kante will miss the game with his hamstring injury in addition to Victor Moses who also faces the prospect of a month on the sidelines. We are yet to hear if Alvaro Morata is available for selection with serious doubts over his fitness with the game coming too soon for him after his own hamstring issues. Danny Drinkwater is out of the game as he battles to recover from a calf injury. 

Having given an excellent and impressive performance against Atletico Madrid in our last game a couple of weeks ago by playing Eden Hazard behind the striker and having three central midfielders, the temptation for the manager is to do the same this week. With the demands being placed on Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas, our only two fit central midfielders, it will be interesting to see if Antonio Conte decides to push David Luiz into the middle of midfield alongside them and Andreas Christensen playing in the middle of our back three? 

The visitors have their own injury crisis heading onto the game so it may be an opportunity for Antonio Conte to decide to stick with the 3-4-3 formation and really attack Roma at Stamford Bridge. If that's the case, then expect Pedro and Eden Hazard to support Michy Batshuayi who I hope will be given another chance to give Alvaro Morata more time to recover from an injury that could just as easily go again if not given time to heal properly. 

A win for Chelsea on Wednesday would put us firmly in command of the Champions League group at the halfway point with another point from our remaining three game almost certain to take us through. Two wins in our remaining games should see us win the group to give us a favourable draw in the next round. 

As ALL Chelsea fans know by now is that we have to hope that whatever eleven head out on that pitch on Wednesday, that they turn up and give the level of performance we have come to expect and start the game on the front foot as we look to dominate throughout. 

A win and a good performance on Wednesday should then give us a platform to build from as we then take on Watford and Bournemouth in our next two Premier League games, Everton in the League Cup next week and the return game in Rome in two weeks time.